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Although he had no sign of prostate cancer, the mutation put him at a high risk of developing it.

“Our advice was that he should go to his general practitioner and have six-monthly tumour marker tests," says Spigelman.

This is the standard PSA blood test that measures for prostate specific antigen. After two years, his PSA started ­rising.

“He remembered we counselled him that if this happened, he should consult a urologist, and he did," says Spigelman.

The urologist performed a biopsy and when it revealed low-grade cancer, the man was given standard advice.

The urologist advised he have no active treatment but actively watch his cancer through a process known as active surveillance.

“But the man and his wife recalled that we said early evidence indicated that with a BRCA2 mutation, prostate cancer was more likely to be aggressive, which means active surveillance may not be appropriate," says Spigelman.

The couple returned to the clinic at St Vincent’s for advice last month.

Fortuitously, initial results of an international study on BRCA ­mutations and prostate cancer had just been published in the journal ­European Urology.

This ongoing study is being ­conducted in 20 countries and Spigelman is one of its 110 authors.

It builds on the knowledge that a BRCA mutation puts men at risk of prostate cancer.

Its initial results show­ed a single BRCA mutation made it 13 times more likely that the cancer would have an aggressive course.

A copy of this study and the man were sent to a urologist at St Vincent’s, who decided it was prudent to operate.

When the prostate was removed, it contained a higher-grade cancer in ­multiple parts of the gland.

This case demonstrates the new ­concept of translational medicine as practised at The Kinghorn. The study was published and the man was treated based on its findings.

For him, the translation from laboratory bench to bedside took two weeks.

Spigelman says the challenge is to get evidence to the urological community in a timely fashion.

The study, called IMPACT, recruited 2500 men. About 15 per cent of them were Australian.

While it concentrated only on BRCA genes, Spigelman says it is early days and there are many more genes in the frame.

He says the motivation for most men coming forward for genetic testing is to obtain information that may be useful for the rest of the family.